Pope: No Faith-Science Opposition in Evolution

Scientific truth, which is itself a participation in divine truth, can help philosophy and theology to understand ever more fully the human person and God's revelation about man.

VATICAN CITY (Zenit) - There is no opposition between faith's and science's views of creation, Benedict XVI says.
The Pope affirmed this today when he addressed members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences who were beginning their plenary assembly on "Scientific Insight Into the Evolution of the Universe and of Life."

The assembly, scheduled to run through Tuesday, has brought together a group of scientists and scholars to discuss facets of evolution ranging from the origin of the human species to what the insect world reveals about the evolutionary process.

The Holy Father recalled how his predecessors, Popes Pius XII and John Paul II noted "that there is no opposition between faith's understanding of creation and the evidence of the empirical sciences."

He then noted how early philosophy "proposed images to explain the origin of the cosmos on the basis of one or more elements of the material world," understanding this "genesis" not so much as a creation, but rather a "mutation or transformation."

"A decisive advance in understanding the origin of the cosmos was the consideration of being qua being and the concern of metaphysics with the most basic question of the first or transcendent origin of participated being," the Pontiff added.

And he explained: "In order to develop and evolve, the world must first be, and thus have come from nothing into being. It must be created, in other words, by the first Being who is such by essence."

Creating and sustaining

Benedict XVI then considered what it really means to say that the foundation and development of the cosmos is "the provident wisdom of the Creator." It is not, he explained, to say that creation has only to do with the beginning of the history of the world and of life.

Rather, the Pope said, it implies that the Creator "founds these developments and supports them, underpins them and sustains them continuously."He added: "Thomas Aquinas taught that the notion of creation must transcend the horizontal origin of the unfolding of events, which is history, and consequently all our purely naturalistic ways of thinking and speaking about the evolution of the world. Thomas observed that creation is neither a movement nor a mutation. It is instead the foundational and continuing relationship that links the creature to the Creator, for he is the cause of every being and all becoming."

A book

The Holy Father noted that the word "evolve" literally means "'to unroll a scroll,' that is, to read a book."
"The imagery of nature as a book has its roots in Christianity and has been held dear by many scientists," he said. "Galileo saw nature as a book whose author is God in the same way that Scripture has God as its author. It is a book whose history, whose evolution, whose 'writing' and meaning, we 'read' according to the different approaches of the sciences, while all the time presupposing the foundational presence of the author who has wished to reveal himself therein.

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"This image also helps us to understand that the world, far from originating out of chaos, resembles an ordered book; it is a cosmos. Notwithstanding elements of the irrational, chaotic and the destructive in the long processes of change in the cosmos, matter as such is 'legible.' It has an inbuilt 'mathematics.'"

Because of this, the Pope said, humanity can engage not just in studying measurable phenomena but also in discerning the visible inner logic of the cosmos.

"We may not at first be able to see the harmony both of the whole and of the relations of the individual parts, or their relationship to the whole," he acknowledged. "Yet, there always remains a broad range of intelligible events, and the process is rational in that it reveals an order of evident correspondences and undeniable finalities: in the inorganic world, between microstructure and macrostructure; in the organic and animal world, between structure and function; and in the spiritual world, between knowledge of the truth and the aspiration to freedom.

"Experimental and philosophical inquiry gradually discovers these orders; it perceives them working to maintain themselves in being, defending themselves against imbalances, and overcoming obstacles. And thanks to the natural sciences we have greatly increased our understanding of the uniqueness of humanity's place in the cosmos."

A soul

Benedict XVI noted that the existence of beings capable of God points to the existence of the "intellective soul of a free transcendent subject."Thus, he said, the Church has constantly affirmed that the immortal soul is created by God, not produced by parents."This points to the distinctiveness of anthropology, and invites exploration of it by modern thought," the Pope encouraged.

He concluded by thanking the scholars and scientists, recalling words from John Paul II: "Scientific truth, which is itself a participation in divine truth, can help philosophy and theology to understand ever more fully the human person and God's revelation about man, a revelation that is completed and perfected in Jesus Christ. For this important mutual enrichment in the search for the truth and the benefit of mankind, I am, with the whole Church, profoundly grateful."